new ironwood scales project *

Methuselah

Methuselah

Joined
Feb 7, 2015
Messages
931
Just want to thank you all for all your helpful knowledge up front. i'm almost ready to replace the scales on a GSO-6 , w/ ironwood burl (unstabilized) and SS loveless bolts and .030 black G-10 liners. sounded easy enough at first. the more i looked into it the more of coarse i found was entailed. some of you all have alot of fancy equiptment. i'm planning to do all the work with files and sand paper. and my cordless drill for the holes and the area of the pomell where the lanyard goes. i only want to do this once. no mistakes. i'm kinda poor at the moment. i don't want my wood to split , i don't want my scales to lift, i do want a nice finnish, i'm not in a big hurry. i thought i may use devcon 2 ton epoxy but am interested to know if that is really the most appropriate ? the steel is CPM-3V against g-10 and wood. i read it should all be cleaned with acetone. my other need is a new drill bit or two. one for the bolt, and shoulder seat. what bits work for ironwood? the holes in the tang are 7/32" i got the 5/16" loveless ,so i guess i'll fill it with dust/epoxy mix. i also heard profin may work to finish with or white rouge. i'm still open on all of this but you get the idea. i'd like to hear from you guys about product recommedations and problems you know or forsee in the plan i have written out here.
--drills?
---epoxy?
---finish?
--be careful of ?
--thank you be safe.
 
Methuselah said:
i really don't know how to use this site very well .
Click to expand...

nobody does for a while... don't worry. ironwood doesn't take stabilizing very well from what I understand because it is already so waxy and dense and as far as I know doesn't need it. if you need to use a hand drill for the holes, super glue the handle on one side at a time to the tang and drill through the steel hole through the wood to ensure you have a fairly strait hole through your handle using the holes in the steel as guides. you shouldn't have trouble with ironwood. just grind it to roughly where you want it and then use the shoeshine method to smooth it out working from coarse to fine, removing scratches as you go. shoeshine means to cut strips of about 1" sandpaper and sand the handle as if you are shining a pair of shoes with the blade clamped into a vice. good luck
 
I'll answer a couple of your questions. Stay away from devcon 2 ton epoxy. I have heard of it failing. G-flex epoxy is popular and works well.

Conpletely Finish the front of your scale before you epoxy it to the knife. You avoid scratching the ricasso that way.

When sanding over the pins use a sanding block. Otherwise the pin will become proud of the handle.

There are so many other things you need to know. Try reading the stickies and look at a couple of WIPs that are posted there.
 
S.Alexander said:
I'll answer a couple of your questions. Stay away from devcon 2 ton epoxy. I have heard of it failing. G-flex epoxy is popular and works well.

Conpletely Finish the front of your scale before you epoxy it to the knife. You avoid scratching the ricasso that way.

When sanding over the pins use a sanding block. Otherwise the pin will become proud of the handle.

There are so many other things you need to know. Try reading the stickies and look at a couple of WIPs that are posted there.
Click to expand...

What he said, will get you started. Also when you think the 50/50 mix of G/Flex is all mixed up. Mix it around about half the time you just mixed it.
 
Rhinoknives1 said:
What he said, will get you started. Also when you think the 50/50 mix of G/Flex is all mixed up. Mix it around about half the time you just mixed it.
Click to expand...

one sticky i read say mix 2 min. than 2 more over a lamp. presumably to get the bubbles out.
 
epoxy needs heat and doesn't work in the cold.
I heat up the two parts shortly with a heat gun before mixing. It makes it runnier and mixes better.
When I epoxy something I heat up my bathroom as hot as it gets and set the clamped knife there to harden.
 
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